Continuing Apace

I've been feeling pretty decent the last few days and needed to put a stop to that.

I've re-applied at a local bookstore, and the manager vaguely recalled me, though perhaps not why I'm unacceptable to her. It's probably my attitude, but continual rejections have a way of bringing me down. I think were I to apply to jobs for which I had any qualifications I could possibly be more successful, but that's something I prefer to avoid.

In any event, to sweeten my chances I found a book to buy (Alice Munro's Lives of Girls and Women), a selection I'm certain will demonstrate my sensitive nature. Not many men, I think, would be purchasing a book written by a Canadian woman.

She appeared unphased, and confidence is low. I did mention I'd buy more if I had a job, and she grinned.

Many people (those not me) are making fortunes in the stock market today. My stocks are rising, but still well underneath where I bought them so if anyone reads this and wishes to help me out I'd encourage you all to buy several plasma screen TVs or insist on fibre run to your home.

And, no, even if I were in the market would this campaign sway my opinion. Not that I have anything against hair, mind you, but that's one dumb looking mascot.


Let's continue the crosstalk!

When do I request readers? In a sense, never. I want people to ask to read my stuff to inflate my ego, not feel as I'm running around hassling them. I have, of course, offered to trade with some people and have been pleased with the results.

When I do that depends mostly on the genre. I'll usually put off having anyone read one of my short stories until I've gotten it to a point I like and consider done. Since they're short I'm more apt to make changes and have the next iteration looked at (if the reader's okay with that), but I don't keep doing it until it comes back with only the word "perfect" on it. I was happy with the story I got published, even though people still found things they felt I should fix.

For my novels it's a different story. Very few people have the time to ever read a whole book. I've taken some classes and have had chapters workshopped, ones I'd polished and felt were done, but never had the whole thing read by any of my teachers. I'd imagine, say, that when I can get a few people to look at The Reader's Emporium, I'd make the changes if I felt they were right. If most of that was limited to, say, a chapter or two, I'd love to return that to the original reader and see if the changes I made addressed his or her concerns. Again, what I'd envision is having someone read the thing, respond to it, and then look it over when I felt it was done and ready to be shopped.

I guess it would all depend on the nature of the reader's criticism. If he disliked the whole thing, felt it was flat and uninspired, I don't think much would be gained by asking him to read it again after wordsmithing. If he wanted to know more about one of the characters, or felt one didn't react in a way that felt natural, I'd like to get away with just returning that portion, rewritten.

Not sure if this makes any sense at all. Anyone?